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Why some parents are tattooing their kids

By Jackie Burrell, Contra Costa Times

Updated:
08/29/2013 12:54:05 PM MDT

One company has begun marketing a line of temporary tattoos, designed to alert adults to food allergies. (Dirk Ott/Thinkstock)

Once upon a time, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were as classic as Flintstones lunchboxes and obscenely sweet, technicolored cereal. Those cereals are still around, but peanut butter has joined the list of banned substances at many U.S. schools. It's not hard to understand why: One in 13 children has a serious food allergy -- to peanut butter, milk, eggs or a host of other things.

So it's also not hard to understand why parents of children with serious allergies get anxious when their kids go somewhere new. Birthday parties, field trips and new dining environments of any sort can be perilous. Now a company has begun marketing a line of temporary tattoos, designed to alert adults to food allergies.

Don't worry. We're not talking tramp stamps.

Applied to an arm, these red and yellow SafetyTats issue an urgent "Alert: Nut Allergy" warning and include space for a phone number and emergency instructions.